Pondering Proverbs – Witness (6)

 

“There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet results only in want. The generous man [lit. soul of blessing] will be prosperous [lit. made fat], and he who waters will himself be watered. He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.” Proverbs 11:24 – 26, NASB.

 

This passage encapsulates the core of the Christian life, in it we see the Incarnation and the Cross and the Resurrection, in it we see our life in Christ, in it we see our fulfillment of the Great Commission, and it in it we see loving our neighbors. Individuals and congregations who are learning to be the incarnation of this passage are being changed from glory to glory into the image of our Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18).

 

Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls,” is linked to 11:24 – 26 in that the way of life seen in 30a, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,” leads to the winning of souls in 30b, and we see a model of the fruit of the righteous, a model of a tree of life, in 11:24 – 26.

 

Put another way, we cannot have, “He who is wise wins souls,” without first having the first part of the verse, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,” and in 11:24 – 26 we see what that fruit looks like, we see what a tree of life looks like.

 

This takes us back to the idea that witnessing is not so much an action, an event, as a way of life in Christ that manifests itself in events and actions. That is, we are witnesses not because of what we do, but rather because of who we are in Jesus Christ. O dear friends, when we look at witnessing as an isolated event that we must do as a task we are not looking at life holistically in Christ, we are not living in Christ organically; the result is that we, as a people, seldom share Jesus Christ with others – the result is that our congregations rely more on marketing and entertainment to attract and retain people than they do on witnessing and discipleship.

 

When we look at witnessing as a task, we tend to focus on method and technique and worry about such things as “knowing the right answers.” When witnessing flows from who we are in Christ, the ways that we witness in word and deed are endless because the ways we interact with people are endless and filled with possibilities. (I emphasize “in word and deed” because we do not want to fall into the trap of thinking that we need not speak about Christ verbally, people need to hear the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.) Witnessing that flows from who we are in Christ focuses not on the right answers, but rather on the Person of Jesus Christ – we want to communicate, to share, Jesus Christ as opposed to data and information. We want people to meet Jesus, this is not about winning an argument.

 

While the late Queen Elizabeth II was not perfect, she knew she was Queen and that she was called to serve the Commonwealth as Queen; before she became Queen, she knew that she was called to one day become Queen. Sadly, others in her family have had no sense of royal calling – they have lived without royal deportment at best, and some have shamed the royal family. The duties of Elizabeth II, her actions, flowed from her sense of who she was, a Queen in the service of the people.

 

Are we, the sons and daughters of the Living God, living as His Royal Priesthood (1 Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6)? Or are we bringing shame to the Family of God? Living as His sons and daughters means that we are living lives of consistent testimony to Him – in word and deed. It means that what God gives to us, we give to others; it means that as God’s life flows into us that it flows out from us to others. It means that we know that we can do nothing of ourselves, but that as we abide in the Vine and as the Vine lives in us, that we will bear much fruit (John 15:1 – 11).

 

It means that everyday is a day of opportunities to give to others in some fashion as we live in Christ and Christ lives in us.

 

We are going to continue to ponder Proverbs 11:24 – 26 and 11:30 in the following posts.

 

As you meditate on these verses, what do you see? How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you through them?